As
mentioned in our prior batrep, Pat
and I had originally planned to do a game of his Chaos Space Marines against
mine, but because the armies are so similar, we decided against it.Seeing as how last time, I got to play the
Spikey Marines Gone Wrong, this time, we thought we’d give Pat’s guys—the Wolf
Brothers—their opportunity to excel against my proxied Orks.

Dvergar Steeljacks:
1999 pointsby Kenton
Kilgore

This
army exists because I like: 1) dwarves, and 2) the Pittsburgh Steelers
(American) football team.Like dwarves
and the Steelers, there’s nothing subtle about it: I load lots of close-combat
junkies into Battlewagons, rush them towards the other side of the table, and
dare my opponent to stop my dudes before they smash his right in the mouth.Accordingly, I brought:

That’s
116 guys, 4 tanks (AV 14 from the front!) and a kustom force field.My army’s predictability is not a bug, it’s a
feature: it’s easy for me to play, and just because my opponent knows what’s
coming doesn’t mean he can handle it.Let’s see if the Wolf Brothers can….

The Wolf Brothers: 2003
pointsby Patrick Eibel

Back
in the days before the current Space Wolf Codex was released (which now has
been several years ago), I restructured my army as a Khorne-oriented Chaos
warband.The army worked remarkably
similar to how a Space Wolf army would, and even after the new Wolfy Codex was
released, I maintained the Chaos elements for variety.With that in mind, I was excited to update
the list with the new Chaos Space Marine Codex. My Chaos army recycles many units from my
Wolves, but adds in a few Traitor units to mark it as a renegade force.Here is what I brought:

Chaos Lord with plasma
pistol, power axe, sigil of corruption, Gift of Mutation

This
army list is a variation of a “Rhino Rush” list I used to run back in the day.While Rhinos tend to be easily killed, if you
field enough of them, they can still get you to your destination.Of course, I knew I would be playing
(proxied) Orks, who are not known for their tank-busting ability.

Pat's army lined up for some afternoon delight brutality

Set-Up

We
played at Pat’s house on a 4' x 8' table Pat had set up ahead of time.We rolled up Warlord Traits and I got “Conqueror
of Cities” for the Black Warspar (Dvergar do not have personal names).Pat’s Chaos Lord got “Exalted Champion” (from
Codex:
Chaos Space Marines), which would let him re-roll his Chaos Boons and
Gift of Mutation.

We
rolled for mission (“The Emperor’s Will”—ironic, as neither of us were
playing Imperial forces) and deployment (“Dawn of War,” with darkness falling
later in the game).We placed the two
objectives (modeled as boulders) in our deployment zones and rolled to see what
“mysterious” abilities they would have.Pat came up with a “1”-- “Sabotaged” -- which meant that he had to test each
turn someone was near his rock, lest it kersplode.

My
rock came up with “Skyfire Nexus,” which granted Skyfire—worthless, because neither of us had Flyers.We decided that it would be more fun if my
rock had the chance of kersploding, too, so we ignored the “3” I had rolled and
treated it as a “1.”In the interests of
“Forging a Narrative,” we decided that both rocks were recently-fallen,
radioactive meteorites that could be valuable—and lethal—in the wrong
hands.Like the hands of both our
armies.

We
also diced for table side and who would set up first, and Pat won.He put his Chaos Lord and Chosen atop a
building, with a squad of Chaos Space Marines and the Rhino transports for both
squads near his rock.To the left of
them went his Terminators in their Land Raider, with the Forgefiend (love that
model!) as support.On Pat’s right flank
went the Chaos Spawn, three Rhinos full of Chaos Space Marines, the Predator,
and the Vindicator.Ulp!

Dvergar deployment, with a whole mess of them hidden in those trees at right

I
put my guys across my Pat’s, which meant that we were playing on half the table
(that frequently happens with us).The
Warspar and Engineer piled in the Marauders’ Crawler, the Troopers, Steel
Troopers, and Flametongues got in theirs, and all four tanks clumped together
to take advantage of the Engineer’s force field.The Regulars Squad Gold started out
surrounding my objective (inside a wood), and the Regulars Squad Black took up
firing positions across three floors of a building.

Pat
then proceeded to school me on how a gaming turn is to be done.His flanking column of Rhinos and Heavy
Support tanks moved up.His Land Raider
drove 6" and the Terminators dismounted.They fired their combi-meltas at the closest Crawler—the one packed with
Steel Troopers—and the Engineer’s electro-shield generator (read: kustom force
field) did exactly “jack” and “squat” (puns intended, thank you) to keep said
Crawler from blowing sky-high, killing 5 Steel Troopers and one Terminator with
an earthshaking kaboom.Shooting by the
objective-holding Chaos Marines, the Chosen, and their Rhinos killed 5 Steel
Troopers, with one plasma-gunner Chosen frying himself.

Despite
all its twin-linking, the Land Raider missed the regular Trooper’s Crawler;
though the Predator hit the same, there was no damage.The Vindicator nailed the tank, the force
field failed again, but the penetrating hit only took off the “mine cannon”
(read: big shoota) on my Crawler.

At
first, we thought that the Forgefiend had slipped past the force field and destroyed
the Flametongue’s Crawler; a look at the cover rules for vehicles said
otherwise (a “4”, which I rolled, was good because the vehicle got +1 due to
its position relative to the Forgefiend).

Well,
that was heinous.Oh, wait—there’s
more!Pat’s Terminators charged my
remaining 10 Steel Troopers.Overwatch
fire, as expected, did nothing, though I managed three Wounds (gosh-derned 2+
Armor Save….).The Terminator Champion
challenged my Nob because he had to (the Champion
of Chaos rule from the new codex), and though he stuck my guy for a Wound
with his purty power sword, my guy guished him with his power klaw.So there!

Would
that my other Steel Troopers had such luck.They struck four Wounds against the Termies, but they laughed them off,
then went to work with their power fists, killing 5 more of my guys.The five survivors lost their nerve and fell
back 11", and the Terminators consolidated into the crater my Crawler had made
when it had kersploded.

I’m
used to my Steeljacks smashing the other guys in the mouth, not getting beat up
like that.What was left of my Steel
Troopers regrouped, and the other three Crawlers moved up, the regular Troopers
(aka Slugga Boyz) dismounting.The
Marauders’ Crawler attempted to run over the Terminators, but the Chaos Iron
Men shrugged off the S10 hits my deff rolla dealt out.The Flametongues’ Crawler smashed its way
through some ruins and rammed Pat’s Land Raider, knocking off a Hull Point and
disabling the twin-linked lascannons on the opposite side of the tank.Go figure.

The
three Rhinos of Chaos Space Marines advanced and the passengers got out to
threaten Regulars Squad Gold.The Chaos
Spawn turned and went after my regular Troopers, who had just chewed up Pat’s
other CSM squad and were now squatting (I slay myself) by Pat’s objective.

In
a firefight, it's best to have a) vast numerical superiority; b)
BS 4; and c) cover. At least my guys have "cover" going for them.

The
Land Raider fired at the Marauders’ Crawler, but the Engineer’s kustom force
field saved it.The same was true for
the Flametongues’ Crawler when the Predator fired at it.The Forgefiend was much more successful,
penetrating and exploding the Flametongues’ tank, killing 8 Burna Boyz and
pinning the rest.

The
Chaos Terminators fired on the Steel Troopers, killing 3 of them.Rhinos and the Chosen fired at the Slugga
Boyz, killing 8.Down by the other
objective, Rhinos and the dismounted CSMs shot dead 17 of Regulars Squad Gold.The Vindicator fired on Regulars Squad Black,
killing 5 of them. Yoi!

The
Chaos Spawn charged my Slugga Boyz, killing two of them before they hacked him
down and advanced 4" into the building, where the CSMs used to be—and two
floors down from the Chosen.My
objective kersploded, killing a Shoota Boy standing near it, which I actually
found exceedingly amusing.

Turn 3

All
right, enough of this.The empty Crawler
that had belonging to the regular Troopers (Slugga Boyz) rammed Pat’s Predator,
thoroughly wrecking its shite.The
Marauders’ Crawler turned and chugged towards the three squads of
recently-disembarked CSMs, with the Warboss, Big Mek, and Nobz getting
out.The regular Troopers advanced up
the building towards the Chaos Lord and the Chosen.

Shooting
by the Slugga Boyz killed one Chosen; Regulars Black took down no Terminators;
Regulars Gold dropped zero Chaos Space Marines.The Marauders fired the “skorcha” part of their shoota/skorchas at the
Chaos Space Marines, killing three from one squad and three from the squad
behind them.Then came the Nobz’s
charge.

The
Nobz survived Overwatch but lost one as the CSMs hit first.Then all those big choppas and power klaws
hacked down the enemy, and the Warboss & Friends moved to engage the next
squad.

The
Slugga Boyz charged the Chosen, losing one to Overwatch.The Chaos Lord challenged the Nob and easily
dispatched him, earning himself the Mechanoid
boon.The Chosen killed three Sluggas,
the dwarves killed none and tried to fall back, whereupon they were caught and
destroyed.

Elsewhere,
the surviving Steel Troopers charged the Terminators but got themselves deaded
for it.No rocks went “boom,” which was
kind of a shame….

Pat
shifted the Land Raider, Forgefiend, Chosen, CSMs, and Rhinos to fire on the
Marauders, dropping only two Nobz (KFF + FNP = good).Fire from the Rhinos in the back and the
Terminators killed three Burna Boyz, making them fall back….right toward the
Terminators.The Vindicator shot at
Regulars Squad Black, missing them badly.

Chaos Space Marines engage the Warboss and the other heavy hitters of the Dvergar's Steel Curtain

Two
of Pat’s CSM squads charged the Marauders, but the only damage done was the
Painboy took a Wound.Three Marines
died, and one squad decided to fall back, leaving their buddies to deal with
some honked-off super-dwarves.

No
rocks went “bang,” to my dismay.

Turn 4

At
the start of my turn, the Flametongues (Burna Boyz) regrouped.Regulars Squad Black began to move down out
of their so as to reinforce the Dvergar by my objective, and I finally found a
use for the Ork codex’s Waaaagh! rule
(nerfed by the 6e rules) as my guys used it to run down the building.

Elsewhere,
the Crawler that had rammed and wrecked Pat’s Predator slammed into the rear of
the Vindicator and wrecked it as well.The Flametongues fired on the Chaos Terminators, fooping one of them.The Warspar & Friends continued to smash
Chaos Space Marines, three this time, causing the rest of the Bad Doggies to
flee 9".

No
rocks blew up.Nertz!

On
his turn, Pat moved in his forces to get better shots at the Warspar &
Friends, who had butchered or driven back the 30 CSMs who had arrived to take
my objective.Fire from the Forgefiend
killed a Marauder (Nob) and the Engineer (Big Mek).Bolters from Rhinos kakked two Flametongues
and three from Regulars Squad Gold; another Regular dropped from the Land
Raider’s heavy bolter.The plaz guns of
the Chosen took revenge for the Vindicator by destroying the Crawler from
behind.The lone Chaos Terminator
charged the Flametongues, killing one of them.

Again,
no kersploding objectives.Booooooooooooorrrrrrrring!

Turn 5

We
rolled to see if the Night Fighting
rules would take effect, but the die decreed that daylight should hold.Regulars Squad Black ran for the objective,
the lone surviving Crawler positioning itself to block most of them from fire.The Warspar charged some nearby Chaos Space
Marines, remnants of a squad that had previously fallen back, and killed two of
them.Rock no go boom.

Regulars Squad Black comes to hold down the objective, as a Dvergar Crawler blocks them from fire

Pat’s
army again advanced towards my objective, firing if they could.The Land Raider took down another Gold
Regular; the Forgefiend and Rhinos killed three Black Regulars.The lone Terminator killed the last
Flametongue and tramped towards my objective.The Warspar struck down the Chaos Space Marines he was fighting.

No
rocks exploded, and we rolled to see if the game would continue.Why, of course it would!

Turn 6

…and
the die also decreed that it would stay light.On my turn, Regular Squad Black swarmed over my objective, cementing it
in my clutches.The Warspar charged and
destroyed a Chaos Rhino, because there was nothing else close to attack.

Dvergar start to run out the clock....

To
win the game, Pat had to somehow get rid of the very numerous members of
Regular Squad Black.He continued to
move up, firing if he could.The Land
Raider had no effect on my Crawler, which continued to block for the
Regulars.The Forgefiend managed only to
shake it.Three Rhinos fired on Regular
Black, killing only one of them, thanks to cover.The Chosen shot and killed my Warspar, who
was out in the open after Pat’s Rhinos had driven away from him, so there was a
Victory Point for Pat.

No
rocks went “bang.”Would the game go
on?Pat rolled…

Turn 7

…and
yes, it would.Darkness finally fell, as
well.My Regulars “kneeled down with the
ball,” so to speak, like the team who’s ahead in American football usually does
at the end of the game.On Pat’s turn,
the Land Raider again could not hurt my Crawler, but the Forgefiend’s Hades
autocannons exploded it, killing two Black Regulars.Fire from the Chosen, a Rhino, and the
Terminator (remember him?) downed four more, but it was not nearly enough as
time expired.

I
think I would have fared better in this game had I put the Lord and Chosen with
the group advance to Kenton’s side of the board, and kept another scoring unit
near my objective.I keep waffling on
whether to get a Heldrake.It seems to
be the only thing in the Chaos Codex with any sizzle, and it would have been
useful in this battle.I knew that
Battlewagons were a bear to take down from the front.I really needed to have a better comprehensive
strategy to deal with the Dvergar onslaught.Well, maybe Kenton and I can sneak another game in soon.At this rate, we are putting up battle
reports as quickly as GW is putting out Codexes.Sayyyyy, aren’t the Eldar getting a new book next
month…….?

Post-Game Analysisby Kenton Kilgore

I
was pleasantly surprised that Pat hadn’t brought Khorne Berzerkers, but I
suppose he, like I, think that “fighting fire with fire” is stupid; thus, he
brought all kinds of shooty goodness.My
Steeljacks used to be very top-heavy, with lots of points sunk into Nobz (I
often used to field two mobs at a time), but I recently reconfigured the army
so that I have more Boyz.It paid off in
this battle, as I had lots of Shoota Boyz to hold my objective even if Pat’s
Terminators and Chosen kept my ‘Ard Boyz and Slugga Boyz (respectively) from
taking his.